Next week, the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum will shine a light on a often neglected art form: the album cover.

The Rock 'n' Soul's new exhibit, "The Fine Art of Rock," features original paintings, pen-and-inks and drawings of some of the most familiar and iconic album covers of all time: from Aerosmith to Black Sabbath, Jefferson Airplane to the Turtles.

The exhibit — presented by Radian Partners with FedEx — is curated by Ernie Cefalu. The Grammy- nominated Cefalu has enjoyed a 40-plus-year career as a designer. For almost 15 years, through the '70s and '80s, he served as creative director for the noted album design firm Pacific Eye & Ear — personally creating about 189 covers during those years, and supervising hundreds more. In addition, the California-bred Cefalu helped create iconic logos and work on campaigns for "Jesus Christ Superstar" and the Rolling Stones, among others.

At Pacific Eye & Ear, Cefalu worked with a roster of talented artists whose work is featured in the exhibit, including Bill Garland, Joe Patagno, and Drew Struzan. "Drew Struzan went on to do all the 'Star Wars' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' posters," says Cefalu. "He's now the most collected illustrator in the world."

Cefalu is highlighting the work of Struzan and others as part of a 46-piece collection that will be on display at the Rock 'n' Soul through Nov. 20. The original pieces include covers for the Bee Gees, Black Oak Arkansas, Canned Heat, Alice Cooper, Earth, Wind & Fire, Grand Funk Railroad, Iron Butterfly, and more. On Thursday, Cefalu be in Memphis for a 6 p.m. lecture and Q&A session at the Rock 'n' Soul (the event is free and open to the general public).

For Cefalu, putting together the biggest collection of original album art in the world came about almost by accident.

"I'm a pack rat, and I never throw anything away," Cefalu said of how "The Fine Art of Rock" initially came about. "I had Alice Cooper's 'Welcome to My Nightmare' painting, the original oil painting that Drew Struzan did, hanging in my place. And this friend of mine was over, and he said to me, 'How many of those pieces do you have?' I said, 'I don't know — maybe 30, or 40.'"

The exchange got Cefalu thinking and, more important, looking through his house and storage facilities. "It was like an Easter egg hunt," he recalls. "I searched everywhere, and when I gathered everything together, I ended up with about 350 pieces. I thought I had a few things; I didn't realize I had an entire collection."

Looking back on the work that he and the others had done, Cefalu was struck by just how good the craft was, and how famous some of the imagery would become.

"At the time, when we were working, we never stepped back and thought this stuff is going to be huge or iconic 40 or 50 years down the line. You're just doing it and don't consider those things. And now looking back on it, the original artwork itself is really impressive and does hold up."

"Something like the Black Sabbath 'Sunday Bloody Sabbath' cover, which is in the Rock 'n' Soul, it's (30-inch-by-40-inch) piece, which is huge — most people don't realize the scale of the original art that ends up on an album. But some of the pieces are really breathtaking."

Much of the material done by Pacific Eye & Ear was album design work, though the company also did a lot of inventive corporate work. Some of those pieces are being displayed around Memphis at Radian Partners, Disciple Gallery and the Art & Speed Classic Car Gallery.

Says Cefalu: "Commercial work was helpful because it helped me understand marketing and packaging and branding. In a way, when you look at these band logos or album covers, that's what we were doing: We were branding, before we knew what 'branding' was."

In addition to the 350-plus finished pieces of album art, Cefalu's search produced another 200 sketches and more than 3,000 music-related photographs. He says has talked to the Rock 'N' Soul about possibly partnering with the Memphis museum in hopes that it might serve as a long-term home for his archive.

"We're taking this exhibit and going to Canada later this year, and back to the Morrison Gallery in Los Angeles in early 2017," says Cefalu. "What started out as a collection has turned into a traveling show — but I'd love for it to find a home. I think album artwork is so overlooked. When you go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or other places like that, album art doesn't have a real presence. It would be great for this stuff to have a real place at the Rock 'n' Soul."

‘The Fine Art of Rock’

Through Nov. 20 at the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, 191 Beale.

Open 7 days a week from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Regular admission is $12 for adults; $9 for youths 5-17. fOR more information, call (901) 205-2533, or go to memphisrocknsoul.org.

About Bob Mehr

Bob Mehr is The Commercial Appeal's lead music writer and part of the GoMemphis team.